Cybersecurity & Privacy
Korea is targeting Russia via espionage campaign called Sanny
Anytime I talk about cyber-espionage, the first reaction most people have is that China must be behind the effort. The reality is that most countries have cyber-espionage capabilities and they use it to further their own interests. My eyes widened and my ear perked up when I read a research paper by FireEye about a possible cyber-espionage campaign against Russian industry by Korea. I say Korea because FireEye hasn’t clarified whether the source is North or South Korea. It seems most companies being targeted as in space research, IT, education and telecommunication.
Scammer want your password. Here's how to protect it
As a business leader working in the information security field, I usually add extra doses of "question everything", "trust no one" and "double check everything" into my life. As the holiday season approaches, everyone seem happier, more cheerful and sometimes more trusting. Scammers are out in force trying to steal your information and identity so this post is a little reminder to be extra vigilant this holiday season. One tip is to never ever ever ever ever share your password with anyone.
An easy way to encrypt your emails and keep its contents safe
I had written an article a while back entitled "Is Microsoft Going Through Your Cloud Stored Files?". Whether the analysis of your content is done by a human, a robot or disgruntled employee, it feels wrong and there are times when you absolutely need to make sure the info in a particular email is secure & protected. You can always install one of the open source PGP alternatives but require complicated setup and key exchange (which makes these non usable by the average Joe).
Facebook helps FBI shutdown the butterfly botnet (mariposa)
The US Department of justice said it has arrested 10 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States related to the operation of the butterfly (mariposa) botnet. The exact infection rate can't be ascertained with certainty however it is believed over 11 millions systems are infected worldwide. As one of the biggest and most widely known botnets, experts estimate that it stole close to $850M by harvesting financial information from 800,000 people.
Securely format your hard drive
Many readers will buy new computers and laptops during the upcoming holiday season and some wil sell their older products. For the security minded, nothing is more important than protecting your personal information so here is a quick suggestion on how to securely format your hard drive. Formatting your hard drive is the only way to ensure your personal information is unrecoverable by the new owners. This advice applies to anyone that is using a mechanical hard drive (aka not an SSD).
Ubuntu is spyware
Richard Stallman, the creator of the GNU Project and a leader of the Free Software Foundation, recently called Ubuntu spyware. He made that claim because the latest version of Ubuntu (12.10) sends desktop search information to Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) so they can show you customized Amazon ads directly in Ubuntu's program called Dash. His exact explanation was "Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical’s servers.
It's time to secure your social networks
Most social media users don't realize how much of their information they allow 3rd party apps to access. It is such a problem that I use IFTTT to send me a monthly reminder to check my social media security settings. My recommendation is to use MyPermissions and I recommend you read my write-up here. It takes 5 minutes each time and it is time well spent. If there are any accounts you want to close, take a look at AccountKiller, a neat site that shows you (step by step) how to delete your account from the most popular sites on the internet.
Instagram on iPhone makes you vulnerable to hacking
A recently discovered vulnerability on Instagram for iPhone makes your account vulenrable to hacking. This vulnerability was discovered by Carlos Reventlov and he explains how a hacker can seize control of a victim's account. The description he provides is: The Instagram app communicates with the Instagram API via HTTP and HTTPs connections. Highly sensitive activities, such as login and editing profile data, are sent through a secure channel. However, some other request are sent through plain HTTP without a signature, those request could be exploited by an attacker connected to the same LAN of the victim’s iPhone.
Microsoft Safety Scanner - Free Windows malware cleanup tool
Everyone knows there is no perfect antivirus product do there are times when you may want a second opinion about your PC's health. This is the market Microsoft is trying to help with the release of its new Microsoft Safety Scanner. The Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free download and performs and on-demand scan to detect & remove virus', spyware, malware and host of other nasty infections. The Microsoft Safety scanner is designed to work with your existing antivirus solution and does not replace it.
LongURL shows what's really hiding behind that short URL
A technique used by hackers is hiding a malicious URL using a URL shortening service like Goo.gl, TinyURL or the automatic shortening done by twitter using the t.co address. There are plug-ins for most browsers that show the actual URL however you may not want to install another browser plug-in (that may compromise your security or slow down the browser). LongURL performs this function without having to install anything. 1. GO to LONGURL 2. Enter your short URL You immediately get the title, short URL, how many redirects they have seen to that address and the long URL.